Daughter of Dozei Part 1: Escape
by Steel-Winged Pegasus
Summary: This is a story of an underdog Abh, trying to escape her miserable life on a miserable planet, and trying to prove her worth to the Imperial Family that she isn't her family's criminal legacy.
1. Upside Down

**A/N:** Hello, it's been a long while since I wrote anything for this website! First off, I'm bad at Baronh, full stop, so usage will be rather limited to what I definitely know, mainly from the two novels I have and the anime (and so I will use a mix of novel and anime spellings for various Baronh phrases), and maybe a bit from the online dictionary it links. Also, this story is a work of fanfiction, I do not own the rights to the series. Hiroyuki Morioka owns all rights to the Seikai series, be it Seikai no Monshou or Seikai no Senki. I know this apparently isn't needed anymore, but old habits die hard. With that being said, onwards to the cast list!~

* * *

Main cast:

Bebaus Wef Dozeryua Kizelia - Connor Kelly-Eiding

Gordon Davidson - John Swasey

DeAndre Wilson - Xzibit

Lof Aronn Rekef Dairuzu Lyuf Ruseja - Allegra Clark

Abriel Nei Debrusc Dreu Abriel Ramaj - Michelle Armeneau

Abriel Nei Lamsar Larth Barker Dusanyu - Ethan Cole

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_I.C.Y. 956, a few months before the new year. A woman's tiny little decision would turn her entire life upside down. A social reject in the eyes of many, she isolated herself, living among the Landers instead. It was an exile she felt society subjected her to for the crimes of her ancestors..._

"Goddammit," Kizelia groaned in pain as she stretched, getting out of bed. Her back was acting up again, scars from a a near-death experience some years back. "Still haven't freaking healed," she grumbled, stumbling into the bathroom and yanked off her shirt to see in the mirror. Three large scars dominated most of her back, a result of being a whipping girl from an abusive ex-girlfriend who found out she was an Abh. Normally, they didn't hurt, but they acted up whenever she slept on her back for too long or she stretched too much.

The street rat groaned again, grabbing some pain medication to dull the senses a bit. She turned up her nose at them; she hated pills of any kind, her Abh arrogance always telling her that pills were for Landers, but the pain was almost unbearable…

She popped two in and drank some water to make them go down easier. "Broken as frick," she cursed, looking at herself in the mirror. A scar ran down the right side of her face and through her eye, an ex-boyfriend causing that. Her natural hair was midnight blue, shoulder-length and wavy. Her eyes were ice blue and weary, so very weary of life. Her pale skin was marked by tattoos, mostly with her left arm having a half sleeve and some smaller ones on her forearm, and another one on her ribs after a reckless dare with another ex-girlfriend. Puberty was very generous to her when she hit her teens, giving her a nice bust and wide hips. Or maybe it cursed her, rather, as she had received unsavory comments before. The most notable trait were her ears. They were almost elf-like, almost like the Nui Abliarsar… but something was off about them, like a chunk was bitten off. There was a v-shaped cut at the ends of her ears, giving them a forked look. As far as Ki knew, her family was the only other one that had differently shaped ears.

Living on this planet was tough for Abh. The star system itself, the Nokturnela Star System, was a border town between United Mankind and the Fek Barker, a territory of the Abh Empire also known as the Barke Kingdom. Because it was a border planet, everything went, the laws of neither the Bar Frybar nor the United Mankind applied, making it rife with crime and other scum. Nokturnela Major was just awful, but she called it her home, because no other planet would ever accept her as one of their own. The slums were underground tunnels, so the air was often stifling. The surface world was almost inhospitable, with a harsh atmosphere, dotted by the few tightly regulated safehouses. It was where the few rich kingpins lived to avoid the disgusting rabble, though not even the lesser gangs could afford that luxury. This planet was also the home territory of the most notorious mafia family in Abh history for centuries, the Dozeryua family.

And she was all alone now; she and her own son were the last living members. She sighed and covered her face in her hands. Ki felt like a real damn failure. She was stuck here, always hiding her real appearance from the Landers who resided on the planet. If there were other Abh that resided here for whatever reason, she wouldn't know. "You're 30 years old, and what did you do in your life? Freaking _nothing_," she hissed at herself. "You joined the academy when you were 17, made it through the three years, and dropped out at the last second like a pussy."

Her father Rauhiel died 25 years ago in a suspicious circumstance, leaving Ki to the care of his cousin Kokani and Grandpa Debenau. Kokani committed suicide when Ki was 15, thinking no one would ever pick her to be their gene donor. Her grandfather Debenau died in an accident when she was 20, just as she finished her training, and the stress and grief made her drop out of the academy, and the harassment she got over the years from the other cadets made the stress worse. It was a cesspool of death for her, it was all she ever knew.

She snapped back into reality when her baby boy woke up crying. He was about five months old now, and she was as devoted to motherhood as could be, powering through her depression. She put her shirt back on and tended to him. "What's wrong, kiddo?" She picked him up from his crib, rocking him. "Need a change? Or did you just wanna see your mom?" She smiled a bit. Debenau was one of the few joys in her life, a loving combo of her and a Lander boyfriend she recently (and amicably, luckily) broke up with. He was named after Ki's grandpa, of course. He fussed when she picked him up, and his belly growled a bit, signaling his hunger. "You need to eat up!" Ki took him to the kitchen, where they ate in relative peace, as peaceful as could be when he loved to mess around with his food, having flung mushed fruit at Ki many times before.

She liked how expressive he was, though. It was just how babies were like, so she was always patient with him during meals. "Hehe," she grinned, kissing him on the forehead, then she sighed. The thought of him growing up and going to the Labule, the Abh military forces, made her anxious. "Dunno what I'm gonna do when you'll go to the academy, kiddo. I wanna keep you safe, but…" she didn't finish that thought, she didn't want to. "You and me, we gotta stick together, buddy," she grabbed the leftovers of a whiskey bottle and chugged it down. "Well, okay. Your dad can stay around, too," she giggled. "He's one of the few good people on this stinking planet."

Debenau still giggled the day away and she called Gordon, his father, up to help him babysit while she was in the tattoo parlor for the day. "Yo, Gordie? Off today? Cool, mind babysitting Debenau for a bit? Neat, thanks."

Surprisingly, Nokturnela Major was pretty stable in terms of territory. It was usually solidly in the border, even with the war raging on. The one good thing about being in close proximity to the United Mankind was that she knew the enemy's language, being fairly proficient in Rikpal as a result of getting lots of war news from shady soldiers stopping by the planet.

_Maybe I should come back to the Labule_, she thought, scrunching up her face at the idea. She hated her time in the academy, and she doubted they'd take dropouts kindly. Not to mention she'd rather live to be with her son instead of fighting for some empress she didn't care for and actually sometimes even despised, and possibly die like some expendable soldier.

Then again, she'd never get out of this situation if she didn't do something to prove her worth to the Abriels. The imperial family never forgot, and they never forgave. She looked at Debenau and put it into perspective. If not for her, then she'd do it for him so he wouldn't have to be scared of others.

Someone knocked on the door, and Ki knew it was Gordon by the way he knocked. She picked Debenau up and made her way down through the labyrinthine house, full of twists and turns and fake entrances so the neighbors would never know. She came up to the fake door and knocked back in a certain way, letting Gordon know to go down through the manhole cover, one of the three real entrances to the house amongst ten or so fake entrances. The Dozeryua family was very clever in thinking of that, as it threw off law enforcement for centuries. Gordon hopped down into the manhole, covering up the entrance as he went.

He was a straw-haired man with pale skin, the most typical Lander one could be, a bit rough around the edges, but generally cordial. He owned a restaurant and bar not too far from here, and he had a strict rule about not starting a bar fight in the establishment. "'Ello, wee squirt!" he greeted Debenau happily. "Been a good boy for Mummy?"

"Hehe, yep, he's getting bigger by the day!" Ki smooched the baby. She didn't like how attached Gordon was being, so she broke up with him. He seemed to take it well, at least, and it wasn't hard to understand why Ki would prefer to stay aloof to romantic partners, after having been burned so many times by abusive partners, both men and women. "I'm gonna head out to the tattoo parlor in a bit. I just need to… fix up my hair," she sighed.

Working up a disguise was one of her talents, it was essential for her if she wanted to live here. It was how her ancestors managed to get by here, and their skills were passed on to the next generation. There wasn't anything quite like the Dozeryua's ability, as they did their disguises by hand instead of using stealth technology, bypassing many detectors. Ki had to dye her hair every few weeks, as the color washed off relatively easily in the shower, and she had to leave her Alpha behind at home. It made life a bit more difficult for her, but it was either out herself as an Abh and possibly die, or pretend to be a Lander and make it through another day.

"Another day, another dye job," she muttered as she got to work. She could have easily lied and said her blue hair was dyed, but… it was surprisingly easy to tell if blue hair was Abh hair or dyed. Then again, the reverse was true, it was easy to tell if Abh hair was dyed, so she was very thorough dyeing her hair. She considered a more permanent solution by way of bleaching her hair and then dying it, but she was a bit scared. It'd be like erasing part of her identity…

Then again, she never had much of an identity. She spent so much time with the Landers, she considered herself one of them. She knew Baronh flawlessly, as even Landers fluent in the language made mistakes sometimes, and she had that unmistakable frosh she hid well, but that was the most she had in terms of Abh culture. She didn't know what it's like to be an Abh, only to be someone reviled by both Landers and other Abh. She looked at herself in the mirror when the deed was done. Brown hair, just like so many of her cousins picked, and not a hint of blue. "Looking good," she joked to herself as she changed out from her sleepwear to her daily wear. She often said she was punk, but her outfit screamed hooker, as she donned a crop top and booty shorts. All in all, she had the best parts of her parents… and the worst parts, too. She certainly resembled her mother a bit more, having only her father's ears, eye color, and hair color.

She had the fierce loyalty and protectiveness, she had initiative and stubbornness, she had good looks, all weighed down by her asshole personality and alcoholism and depression. She had no commitment to any one partner for long and she was notorious for sleeping around. She could be very savage when provoked, too… and it didn't take much to piss her off. "And the final touch…" she grabbed a white bandana and folded it up into a headband, tying it tightly around her head. Sometimes she hated that headband. Back then, the other cadets often yanked on the ends when she wasn't looking, pulling her backwards by surprise… but she had to hide her frosh somehow. They teased her about it, but she was just so used to having it on before arriving at the academy due to her living situation. In the end, they managed to bully her out of that for the remainder of her academic career, and she reverted back to wearing it once again when she came back home. She came out of the bathroom and saw Gordon playing with Debenau, rattling a toy in front of his face. "Hey, Gordie? Mind if we just chat for a second before I go?"

"Aye, sure thing, Ki. What about?"

"...I'm thinking of going back to the military," she sighed. "I hate the idea as much as you do, but how am I gonna get out of this hellhole without doing illegal things and sneaking into another planet? I just need to hang on to a future where the kiddo doesn't have to worry about being bullied to the ground."

"I don't think so, lassie. Debenau needs 'is mummy," Gordon shook his head. "But it's up to you in the end." He'd also miss her terribly if she fell in battle, but he didn't voice that. "Do they even take back dropouts?"

"Not sure, I guess I'll have to see," she kissed Debenau on the forehead. "Mommy's going to work, be good for Daddy, okay?" she smiled at her baby, putting on a vest and boots before she left. "See ya 'round, Gordie."

She walked about with ease, at least compared to a typical Abh. Most Abh were wobbly on land, as their bodies were made for space and zero gravity conditions. Ki had the advantage of adapting to it, though she could never really shake off the uneasy feeling that was just natural to every Abh on a ground setting. "Hey, sexy mama!" some thug catcalled her.

"Piss off!" she growled back in response. There were always a few rumors here and there that she was an Abh and that was why she was impossibly exquisite for anyone living here. She always denied them, of course, because one of two things would happen if the truth came out: they'd either kill her in cold blood, or one of them would try and kidnap her to be their slave, and she had no intention of being anyone's servant for any reason. It wasn't anything new, though; she got such creepy comments ever since she was 17. It was like she was a disgraced queen in hiding, scared of her own subjects.

Finally, her tattoo parlor. She wasn't ever sure if being a cadet counted as serving in the military, but she proudly considered herself a merchant, selling her artistry as a service. One supposed some traditions die hard. She somewhat followed the three important stages of life for an Abh, after all. It was a bit of a shabby place, but it was one of the few safe havens in her particular area, and it was decently clean and bright compared to everything else on the planet. She always told would-be customers to buzz off if they were incorrigible and misogynist, or, if they demanded a tattoo constantly, intentionally ruin it for them, but she was very talented and could be very friendly if clients were respectful.

"Another day, another tattoo," she told herself, flipping on the lights and getting ready. Second only to her son, art was the other thing that brought her much joy, a passion that was fostered by her emotions and supportive family members. For as long as she remembered, she always had a knack for artistic endeavors, and she found it was rather therapeutic. The only issue was that her addictions got in the way, and sometimes her depression left her feeling tired… but it was the only thing really keeping her mental state together.

She flicked on the sign to "open", and right on cue, her first client of the day came around. "Wassup, man?" she shook his hand and pulled him close, and he patted her on the back.

"Eyy, homegirl! How ya been?" the dark skinned Lander man grinned.

"Hehe, nothing much, same crap every day on this hellhole, DeAndre," Ki chuckled. "So we're here to get that tat colored in, yeah?" she pointed at one of her more recent works, a flaming skull on his arm.

"Hell yeah! Surprise me with the colors, Ki! Ya know what to do, you the best artist on this side of the turf!" he fist bumped her. Like many others, DeAndre didn't know Ki was one of them… though he never seemed to say really negative things towards the Abh, but Ki was always wary. Gordon, on the flip side, knew Ki was an Abh, but he sympathized with her, being even more than happy to have a child with her when they were still a couple, knowing that their son would be an Abh. He took great care of not spilling the beans to anyone else.

Kizelia just wasn't sure if she could trust even her most amicable clients. No, not just unsure, she straight up couldn't, not unless she knew what they'd think of the Abh. "Alrighty, I think you're gonna really dig this, man!" she fist bumped back. "So anything new?" she intensely washed her hands, often going up to the elbow, despite that being overkill.

"I heard a pretty wack rumor goin' 'round, an' definitely not about ya this time!" DeAndre peeped. "Still about an Abh or somethin' or other, though," he shook his head, his dreadlocks moving along in tandem.

"Oh, really?" that admittedly piqued her curiosity a bit.

"A few, actually. Heard that the big crime lord in town has an Abh in his hands, a real pretty lady."

That just bristled Ki up, she hated the idea of any Abh being treated like a subhuman. She kept her cool, though. "Freaking aliens, eh, Dee? How'd she get on this stinking planet? Must have been a real dumbass to land here," she snorted a bit.

"I dunno, that's just a rumor. Probably fake as hell, fo' all I know, an' we both know how the big mafiosas love attention," he shrugged as Ki got out some ink. "Other words on the street say the Abh are gonna try an' take over, I think they're trynna get this place under control."

The tattoo artist put on some rubber gloves and scoffed again, this was getting ridiculous to her. "Yeah, right. If the United Mankind couldn't fix this up, how're the space elves gonna do that?" Ki grimaced a bit as she got started on his arm. She had a point, though. Not even the law enforcers from United Mankind could stop the anarchy of Nokturnela Major, despite the support to the nation.

"I kinda hope the Abh are gonna try," DeAndre admitted. Honestly, he had mixed feelings about the Abh. He was confident they were miracle workers, bettering even a trash planet like this into something bearable, but on the other hand… "I just don't want them messin' things up too much, but this planet's just a warzone every day fo' us."

Now that was surprising to Ki, and she hesitated a bit. "Be careful saying that, they're gonna beat you down if they heard that, Dee," she half-joked, half-warned.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I think if they saw how bad this place is, they gotta step in, ya hear?"

Ki sighed. This was it now. If he was even a little bit sympathetic to her situation, and since he knew a way off this planet... maybe he'd help. "I kinda doubt that. Trust me, I know so. They see a thug, they'll either leave you alone to fend for yourself or harass you into dropping out of the military."

"Oh, really, now?"

"What if I told you that all those rumors of me being an Abh were true?" Silence. DeAndre was, for lack of a better word, shocked. Not in a bad way, or a good way, but it certainly felt that the illusion of Ki being a normal human was shattered.

He felt a bit hurt, yes, but not as much as he thought. "That explains yo' pretty looks," he just chuckled. "But really, how…? Ya don't look like an Abh..."

"Just swing by my place later tonight, I'll explain my story. Just make sure you go alone, okay? But trust me… I'm a real Abh," and to prove it, she lifted off the bandana, revealing her frosh… an undeniably Abh feature.

"And you been livin' like this for yo' whole life? Props to ya, Ki. I doubt I could live like that every day, just hidin' my real self."

"Eh. You just learn to adapt and survive. I just hope I'll live long enough to teach my baby the same skills my grandpa did."

* * *

_Next chapter:_

"_Dee, ya bet your ass that propaganda is wrong as hell about the Abh. I definitely know one thing… we Abh wanna have a good relationship with our kiddos, it's the most important relationship in our culture. I'm sure as hell that my kid makes me happy when I see him. Question all the propaganda you see from here on out, man. Just don't fight the power, because they'll probably kill ya."_


	2. Ki on the Spot

And like DeAndre promised, he swung by Ki's place alone. He was a man of his word when he made a promise, and Ki could get all the allies she needed in this dump. He looked strangely at the house she lived in, and he wasn't sure how to approach it, so he parked his hoverbike and knocked on what he thought was a real door.

"Over here, Dee!" Ki hissed at him from a window, guiding him to a well-hidden one-way door, one of the other real entrances to the house. "Just watch your step, and just keep moving when you step through, because that door will slap your ass if you don't."

"Damn, Ki, ya live like this?" he followed her words, almost tripping over and stumbling as he walked through the door and, indeed, he did almost get his bum hit by it.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like much, but it's… home, I guess," Ki shrugged, holding Debenau in her arms, with Gordon by her side.

"Ya have a baby, too?! Ki, this ain't a place to raise a kiddo, 'specially not an Abh kiddo!" DeAndre started to fret and worry. He hated kids being in danger of any sort, even in the "safety" of their house. "How'd ya manage to…?"

"...I extorted a doctor to do the genetic tweaking needed," she admitted. "Wasn't any other way, I had to brute force her to do what I wanted to do, and I made damn sure to keep her mouth shut after that."

In a planet rife with crime like this, it was easy for Ki to fall into the sins that plagued her family. "So you… you killed her?"

"If I kept her alive, she'd spill the beans to other patients, and those patients would try to hunt me down. This whole planet's corrupt, Dee, ya think doctors are gonna follow their whole patient confidentiality stuff? Especially since I told her I was an Abh?"

It really wasn't as easy as back in the day, back in the prime of the Dozeryua family's criminal activity, where they at least had their own genetic engineers constantly held hostage… to work for them or to die right on the spot if they refused.

"That's one reason, anyways," Ki snorted. "A little voice in my head told me to. There's the other, smaller reason. Anyways, make yourself at home, grab a beer, and a snack, we need a chat." And it was a much-needed discussion, with Ki telling her story. "So that's that, that's how I ended up in the dumpster fire that's my life."

"Wow… so what now?" DeAndre sat slackjawed at his fellow street rats.

"Aye, that's exactly why Ki asked ye to come over," Gordon scratched his head. "We wanna escape, an' we're wonderin' if ye'd be willin' to join. She told me… that yer a wee bit kinder than others 'ere."

DeAndre looked thoughtful for a second. Like his tattoo artist, he had his own hands dirty with his fair share of bad deeds, all just to survive in this hellhole. "Ki knows, I told her once, but I've got a ship, Gordie, ya see…" he let Gordon in on a secret. "Used it for black market items, mostly. Thugs like us gotta make money somehow," he justified.

"And yer willin' to let us borrow it?"

"I'm more than willin', I'mma join ya, Gordon. Maybe Ki can put in a few words fo' us to the Empress an' have her fix up our janked planet. Ki wanna get back to the military anyways, yeah?"

"Yeah, but what about you guys?" Ki butted in. "I have my plans set, I just… need you to be safe, and someone to take care of Debenau," she rattled a toy in front of him, the baby boy giggling and reaching out for it. "I don't even trust other Abh to babysit him…" she admitted, but she didn't know what to do. Gordon would probably be considered unfit to raise Debenau by himself, since he didn't know Abh culture, and because he'd probably be considered a United Mankind citizen. Worst case scenario was that Empress Ramaj would put Debenau with some Abh parent who'd probably hate him, and she didn't want to think of that. The best case scenario would be sticking him with his genetic nearest of kin, Ki's mother's family… wherever they were. She felt horrible and just picked him up and hugged him. "I dunno what they'll do with ya, kiddo…" she sighed.

"'Oi, chin up, Ki. We'll figure it out," Gordon hugged her. For now, they'd think on their escape plan, and figure out the rest on the way there.

"Right," Ki nodded. "So we'll meet up here next week. I'll just let all my clients know that I'm closing up shop and I'll be away somewhere else on the planet. Convincing enough lie, I think, and saying some real thuggish mobsters want my head… icing on the cake, makes it a bit more believable. We'll sneak out when it's the least busy so no one ever suspects a thing. We fly on out, we send a distress signal out, and hopefully… Labule ships will get it."

"Sounds like a good plan," DeAndre nodded. "But what about him? How're we gonna keep him quiet?" He pointed at Debenau.

"I know what knocks him out, don't worry. He's a good kid, he's starting to sleep through the night now, too," she cradled him. "Yo, Dee… if you find Heather, mind asking her if she wanna tag along?"

Heather was the other one of Ki's amicable exes, a dark skinned Lander woman with fiery red hair, DeAndre's cousin. It was a pipe dream, of course; one day, she just disappeared. "Maybe, we'll see," he shook his head. He hadn't seen her since then, either, and they only had a week before they'd leave the planet… possibly for good. There was always that small chance Heather herself escaped to join the Abh, but… Ki doubted it. She doubted anything remotely positive. "Heather's a tough cookie, Ki. I'm sure she's okay… wherever she at."

"Yeah, well… I wanna hope you're right, Dee, but I just can't," Ki admitted. "I'll believe it when I see it, I guess." Gordon patted her on the shoulder, trying to comfort her "So… leave everything behind, everything that's not important. Take just what you need," she advised. She had a knack for planning, especially like the higher ups in the Labule, though she didn't really realize that. "That's Plan #1."

"An' what if we get caught?" Gordon couldn't help but to ask.

"Plan #2: knock them out cold or gun them down, if you gotta. We're in charge of our own weapons, I'm sure we all know," the street rat checked that off. She looked out of the window. It had been so long since she last saw the stars, would she feel like she belonged? "I'm gonna be back home, but it won't feel like home… and it's gonna be Debenau's first time in space, too," she mused. "We're gonna be like… fish out of water, he's gonna see all sorts of stuff for the first time, things he'd never see if he grows up here."

She supposed the one good thing here was that her ex-boyfriend George wouldn't be around. She broke up with him prior to joining the academy, and received a scar on her face as a result from the confrontation. Since then, however, she saw neither hide nor hair of his worthless arse. She hoped it would stay that way… but then other exes might catch wind and try to gun her down. Most weren't an issue, they backed off and ended their relationship with her once she started to fight back, and she was a dreadfully scrappy and dirty fighter.

Other than George, one other was a major issue. Ki narrowed her eyes at the thought and at the memories. One of her ex-girlfriends Gina almost killed Ki in cold blood, and she was the only one who ever figured out she was an Abh. "Wonder why she never told anyone…" she thought out loud. It never really made sense to Ki that she kept that dirty secret to herself. "Wonder what her plans are…"

"Who?" DeAndre butted in.

"An ex. She's the meanest, most violent piece of garbage I ever dated. Just remembering her's making my scars hurt… A blondie with big cutesie eyes, shorter than me, but… don't be tricked by that. Makes George look like a goddamn angel in comparison," she explained.

Sure, Ki planned out their escape, but what good would that do if either George or Gina caught them? Ki would prefer to avoid killing another person, if she could help it… but this was a bit different. "Plan #2A: Gordon's seen her before, and he's got my blessing to shoot her down and leave her for dead if she sees us in our little escape."

The Lander thug wanted to ask Ki about what exactly happened, but decided not to prod on. "So what's she planning?"

"No clue, and that scares the hell outta me," Ki responded back. "It's exactly why we gotta shoot her down if we see her."

"And this George guy?"

"I haven't seen him lately, but still… just be on your toes," in all honesty, the street rat was actually rather nervous. It was basically two violent exes gone, neither hide nor hair seen ever since then; they could still be biding their time, or they might have moved on to new targets. She looked at the clock; it was late, even considering Nokturnela's perpetual darkness. Debenau fussed a bit, he needed his sleep. "Well… this ends this meeting, hit me up if you guys hit any snags before then." Ki rocked her baby, kissing him on the forehead as the youngster yawned and fell asleep, being handed off to his dad.

"Aye, time to go to sleep, wee squirt!" Gordon fawned as he went to put Debenau to bed.

Dee was curious on more than a few things… "How'd you…?" he pointed at Ki's bandana, obviously referring to her frosh. Surely, with all the people she slept with, they'd find out of her identity as an Abh?

"Lots of makeup like you wouldn't believe. I really hate wearing makeup, so I had to plan carefully when I'd smother it on… and it's kinda why I prefer using the bandana to cover it up, I just tell people I like this fighter aesthetic and they leave me alone, luckily. If they don't, they get a good kick in the dick or stomach."

"An' you said you killed the doc'... who had to help ya when ya had to squeeze him outta ya?"

"Another doctor, and I had to get Gordon to kill him off," she admitted, sighing a bit. She hated remembering what she had to do, she hated the blood she had on her hands. "I wish it wasn't like this, but what could I do?"

Silence for a few seconds as he took it all in, wrangling with the fact that this pretty chill tattoo artist resorted to murdering people just to be safe. "So… what exactly are the Abh like?" DeAndre couldn't help but ask, Ki would be pretty much his only experience with the so-called enemy. That, and at least it'd shift the topic a bit.

"Honestly… besides my family and the basic biological and cultural stuff, I don't even know. The two things I know is that we Abh love zero gravity, we were made for it. We actually need it when we're babies, you see, so they can develop their sense of direction," she summed up, "and we have our little sensory organ, not like a third eye… but if you were following me, and I wasn't looking, I could tell you how far or close you are, that's the easiest way to describe it. A sixth sense, I guess."

"Yo, hold on… with the gravity stuff, then what about yo' baby? An' you? An' yo' daddy an' granddaddy when they grew up?"

"Aha! We have a tightly kept secret room in the basement. It's nothing too fancy, but it got the job done," Ki showed him downstairs, an extremely well-hidden set of stairs that led to a zero-gravity chamber. "Back in the family's heyday, we had the tech to make a room for zero g's, so when we eventually went underground, we made… this," she flipped the switch, pushing Dee off to the field.

"Kiii, this ain't funny!" DeAndre felt like he was going to be sick as he floated about, his first time in zero gravity, and the tattoo artist shut it off, laughing her ass off at the poor man's predicament as he landed on his back. "Man, you can be so cruel," he feigned being hurt, brushing himself off.

"Hey, no need to feel bad, you didn't do too bad for your first time in zero g!" Ki snorted a bit, grinning like an imp.

"So tell me more, what's their culture like an' all that jazz?"

"Can't say I know much about Abh culture, but I can definitely say that most Abh I ever knew when I was in the academy were cruel, and those who didn't join in… well, they ignored how I was being treated," she hummed. "Well, except one, and she was hardly… a typical Abh, anyways. They're supposed to be all pretty and elegant and sophisticated, but… not in my experience. My only friend was some hillbilly with green hair, with the prettiest orange eyes," she grinned at the nostalgia, the only good memories she made in the academy. "I just hope she's doing well, I haven't seen her in years…"

"Wait… I thought you was supposed to have blue hair," Dee looked stumped as all hell, and it showed how clueless he was about the Abh. He just had to know about… well, everything about them, to see if they were different from what the UM portrayed them as. This was as good a time as any other, maybe even better, as now Ki had at least an extra friend on her side, and she was right, this was a much-needed chat for him. She got to unload her whole story, and he got to learn about the Abh.

"Eh, green and purple are fine and all," Kizelia waved off casually, though she had a feeling that there was more to it than that. "Dee, if you've got anything else to say, spit it out. I know you're not the type to nitpick on the small things."

"Man… they always say that the Abh dun like their kids… that their kids just a part of a big machine, but then I see you an' yo kid… I dunno what to think. You look an' act like any otha' human bein' out there…"

"Dee, ya bet your ass that propaganda is wrong as hell about the Abh. I definitely know one thing… we Abh wanna have a good relationship with our kiddos, it's the most important relationship in our culture. I'm sure as hell that my kid makes me happy when I see him. Question all the propaganda you see from here on out, man. Just don't fight the power, because they'll probably kill ya."

* * *

_Next chapter:_

"_Escape routes?" Ki perked up a bit. "Listen closely, Baroness Dairuzu," she beckoned her closer, "I have a plan to escape from here, with a few of my buddies, You want in?" She had a feeling Ruseja would be a great help with the plan, and she felt that it was high time for the noble to go back to her family._

"_...Tell me more," the baroness mused, definitely interested. The more allies in on this plan, the better._


	3. The Duel

**A/N: Well... a warning now, because someone dies in this chapter later. I tried to keep it as T rated as possible, but it still is somewhat graphic.**

Well… this was a very unexpected twist in her plans. Things went rather well: About a week after she thought of coming back to the Labule, she was in a bar, drinking away the night to calm her nerves before she'd make her escape to proper Abh territory.

She was a regular at this particular tavern, A Bloody Mess, so named for the frequent bar fights that often resulted in someone bleeding on the floor. She visited so often that the bartender would just start mixing her favorite drink as soon as he saw her walk in, and everyone knew her for her seemingly heavyweight tendencies, never suspecting her to be an Abh, somehow. Perhaps her disguises were just that good, which she very much was glad for.

"Hey, how's it going, Aaramov?" she grinned, seeing the bartender. She liked him enough, but never enough for a romantic relationship to develop.

"Ah, Ki, there you are," he greeted, mixing her drink. He was a stoic older man of few words, with a gaunt face and some grey hairs speckling his brown hair at his age. He considered Ki a bit of a daughter figure, a child he never had.

The atmosphere was typical: people were drunk and loud, some were fooling around with each other. Someone in a corner caught her eye. _That woman's new,_ the street rat thought to herself, she had never seen such a enigmatic person in the tavern, and she intended to try to get a word or two from her. "Any idea who she is, Aaramov?" Ki hunkered down at her favorite spot.

"Not a clue, first time I've ever seen her," he slid the mug down to her. Aaramov honestly figured she was just doing her thing, just watching the people go by. He let her be, she didn't seem to be causing trouble, and didn't mind as long as she ordered something in exchange for loitering around.

Ki glanced over the scenery, and tensed up, her hair standing on ends. There was a Lander man with jet-black hair slicked back, with the most spindly little mustache ever, and she recognized that ugly mug of his anywhere. He wasn't her first boyfriend, but this man was no better than George, being wildly possessive and thinking of women as a man's property. He was a real crappy boyfriend, to say the least. He hated Ki being the spitfire she was and often tried to beat her into submission and tried to manipulate her into staying with him. "So Anton's here, eh?" she squinted, ready to beat him down if the need arose. In the street rat's experience, one either stayed down in fear or rose up and fought back. She eventually chose to fight back in all of her awful relationships, she wasn't the quiet submissive abuse victim so many people usually thought of.

Anton was drunk off his rocks, hiccuping and red in the face. Ki took a sip of her whiskey and rum mix, keeping an eye on him, then it happened. He tried to pick a fight with Ki, getting her attention by being loud and obnoxious. "That woman thinks she can get away with being tough like a man!" he called out, slurring his words.

The tattoo artist just grumbled and downed her drink. She might not be drunk, but the anger simmering in her definitely made her seem like it. "Better to be alone and single than be stuck with you again. You ruined me, Anton. Ruined me!" It wasn't a lie, technically. He wasn't the first to do so, though he was the one to finally solidify Ki's trust issues to everyone who was interested in her.

"I was just teaching you how to be a proper woman!" he snarled back, before Aaramov broke up the escalating fight. It helped some… before Anton downed another drink and copped a feel on an equally drunk woman next to him, incurring Ki's wrath.

"Pervert! Sick freak! You freaking touched her!" she pointed at him, her eyes full of rage and coldness and that readiness to fight.

"And what are you gonna do about it?" Anton goaded on in all his drunken stubbornness and pridefulness. All the while, the woman in the corner was watching, unsure whether she should intervene or not.

"You wanna see, buddy? Let's have a showdown!" Ki stomped up to him and held him by the collar of his shirt. "You can fight now, or you can fess up that what you did was messed up!" Now that this really escalated, there was no chance in hell that Aaramov could stop this fight, since now there was an angry woman trying to shoot Anton down as she drew her handgun.

"You're not thinking straight, Ki…" the bartender tried to dissuade her from the duel one last time, as pointless as it was at this point… but he was right.

"He's gonna freaking pay for all the crap he's ever done," she seethed, too riled up to listen and setting the gun to the kill setting, surprising Aaramov. She wasn't usually extreme like this, not in all the years he knew her.

It was probably the Dozeryua genes taking over, or maybe she just snapped, but regardless, she missed… twice, somehow, and now it was Anton's turn to try and gun Ki down. Unfortunately, or maybe thankful, rather, Ki didn't get the memo, and she suddenly tackled Anton down before he ever drew out his handgun, having his throat in a death grip as she looked down at him and bashing his brains out against the ground at the same time. Her mind was fogged up in her bloodlust, the screams of the bystanders just noise in the background. _Kill, kill, kill_, a little voice in Ki's head told her all throughout the act. The hooligan made quick work of his agonizing death, and she didn't let go until someone smashed a bottle over her head, knocking her out.

She woke up the next morning in someone else's bed, groaning and holding her head. "What happened last night?" She flinched a bit, her head was pounding with a killer headache, and wounds were still fresh.

"Relax, take it easy. Just breathe," and there was a woman sitting by her side, no doubt the one who nursed her back to health, and almost certainly the woman in the corner from last night. "You had one hell of a time last night. Had to drag your bloody carcass back before someone tried to kill you in the chaos."

"Thanks." Ki leaned back a bit, sighing a bit. "What… what happened?" she asked again.

"Well… you strangled that guy while you brained him, that was an ugly sight. Floor's probably still got brain and skull bits, you were a brute, you held on till I smashed you silly," her nurse revealed. Ki was… well, stunned, to say the least. "I had to fight off a few knuckleheads so I could drag you back here, so you're welcome for that. Lucky me that there weren't too many there, so just a quick stun kept them down long enough."

"...I don't remember anything from last night," she admitted. "All I remember was that Anton was being drunk and horrible, and next thing I knew, I'm here. Why can't I remember?"

"Perhaps it's your Dozeryua genetics," the good Samaritan pointed out Ki's cropped ears. "You just do it automatically, almost in a bit of a fugue state, I suppose one could say."

"Are you an Abh?" she asked in Baronh when she heard the woman say that. It was so strange, as Ki mostly spoke Rikpal, but the Abh language came flooding back to her, naturally and flawlessly, like she was coming home.

"How'd you figure?"

"Only other Abh know of the reputation of the Dozeryua. That and you just have that vibe," she shrugged. "I guess we just know if someone's an Abh or not. 'Sides, we're known to be impossibly pretty," she grinned. "How'd you manage to get stuck here? Most Landers here hate us."

"...It's a long story," she revealed.

"My ancestors picked this crappy place to stay, so that's my story," Ki shrugged. "So now I'm stuck here like them, too." then she had to switch to topic, she had to know more of what happened. "So… what's the scoop? Give me the exact play by play."

"You tried to shoot a man for feeling up a lady you fancied, then you choked him to death," the medic pretty much summed up. "You shot twice and missed both times, then you just tackled him down. I smashed the bottle over your head and tasered everyone to incapacitate them so we could get away."

Ki leaned back, letting it process in her head. She killed a man. "Wow…" she sighed. "Can't say I'm surprised… but it's the first time that's happened," she admitted, feeling even worse than she normally did after a kill. _Uuugh, gonna have to tell Debenau that Mommy killed a man,_ she thought.

"But if it helps, you saved my life, in a way. That man's father Konrad owned me, and Anton was the heir of the crime syndicate here, after all. I sold my freedom in exchange for safety, because I knew the Landers here would kill me if they found out an Abh found her way here. Konrad kept his word, keeping me safe from prying eyes, shockingly… but he and Anton treated me as a subhuman."

So the rumors of the crime boss having an Abh lady in his hands were true. "Was it worth it to trade your freedom away?"

"If I knew what would happen, I'd have killed myself." The silence was deafening.

"How'd you manage to get out if they were keeping you hostage?" she finally managed to ask her savior after a few minutes.

"Extremely careful sneaking around. Lots of planning, too. I had to make sure to sneak out when they were gone, and be back before either of them were back. Had to make it look like nothing was out of the ordinary, too," she explained. Of course, she had a feeling her charge would want to know another thing… "Now, to not look like an Abh, I had to hide my hair extremely well, like so," she gestured to her hair, tightly wound up in a bun and wrapped up in a rag. "Had to improvise with hiding my frosh, so I just used some bandage wrap that matched my skin tone," she took off the rag, and her long, mint-green hair cascaded down when she undid the bun.

"Lemme guess, you just told people you just had a flesh wound?" the hooligan nodded in admiration. "Clever, I just tell everyone who met me that these," she gestured to her ears, "were a body mod that I got from some even shadier service," she gave a thumbs up. Ki stretched and flinched again, no doubt from the headache. "Goddammit," she mumbled. It wasn't too bad, at least, so she didn't need any painkillers.

"Easy, now," the good Samaritan gently pushed Ki back down. "I had to carefully pick out the glass bits from your head, you're still bleeding a bit. Besides… I never asked for your name."

"...Ki," she replied. She needed no other introduction. "You?"

"I am Lof Aronn Rekef Dairuzu Lyuf Ruseja," the medic finally revealed, full title and everything.

_Whoa… this was a real proper Abh_, Ki realized. She was talking to a baroness, pretty much. "Any relation to Admiral Rekef, then?" Ki chuckled, having a vague idea of who's who in the Labule. If this woman was related to the duke in any way, the story of how she ended up here had to be good.

"...He's my granduncle," Ruseja shrugged, as if it was just common knowledge.

"If that's true, why are you here?"

"I said it was a long story. The short story is that I was a medic on the Galroth, there was a small skirmish not far from here years ago. Dunno if my crew made it out or not, I was lucky to make it through on an escape pod, and ever since then, this hellhole's been my home."

_Years… wow, and I've never seen her in my entire life_, Ki thought to herself, surprised at the reveal. She had to wonder if there were any other surprises she didn't know about on this planet; she certainly didn't see all this crummy world had to offer, after all.

"Now… the mafia here's gonna find you and kill you, they know what you did. I do know of a few escape routes…" she started to explain.

"Escape routes?" Ki perked up a bit. "Listen closely, Baroness Dairuzu," she beckoned her closer, "I have a plan to escape from here, with a few of my buddies, You want in?" She had a feeling Ruseja would be a great help with the plan, and she felt that it was high time for the noble to go back to her family.

"...Tell me more," the baroness mused, definitely interested. The more allies in on this plan, the better.

* * *

_Next Chapter:_

"_Gordie, wanna scout out with me?" Ki offered. Gordon handed his duffle bag off to Ruseja and tagged along with Ki. "I just have a bad feeling about this, is it… wrong of me to feel that way?" she held a steady hand on her handgun, looking around._

"_I don't think so, we're all a wee bit on edge… well, maybe 'wee bit' is a wee bit o' an understatement," Gordon tried to lighten the mood, as ready as Ki was to shoot at any opposition._


End file.
